Watermill Theatre announces 60th anniversary season including Jerusalem, Carousel and more

Exclusive: The Watermill Theatre has announced its 2027 season, marking its 60th anniversary.

The season begins with one of the venue’s big recent hits, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s The Wipers Times, directed by Caroline Leslie, running from 29 January to 6 March. The comedy returns to the theatre ten years after its premiere in 2016. Since then, it has toured nationally three times and had two West End runs.

From 11 to 13 March, the Watermill Youth Ensemble will perform a new adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adapted and directed by Matty Green. The production marks 40 years since the inception of the Watermill’s Youth Theatre and will, as has become the norm, incorporate actor-musicianship.

Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem returns from 19 March to 24 April, presented in association with Fiery Angel. Based on Lisa Blair’s 2018 production, the new staging will be co-directed by artistic director Paul Hart and Georgie Staight. The play, deemed one of the best of the century, follows the iconic Johnny “Rooster” Byron and is set within ten miles of the theatre. We’ve covered this in more detail here. 

Alan Ayckbourn’s Way Upstream will be staged outdoors on and around the water at the Watermill, with Katie Posner directing. The production will use the theatre’s trademark riverside setting as part of its staging.

Over the summer, Hart will direct Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, with a new orchestral adaptation by Stuart Morley for actor-musicians and choreography by Anjali Mehra. The production will feature music and dance across the theatre and its grounds. The Watermill is also collaborating with domestic abuse charity Project Salama to explore how the story of Billy and Julie is presented. We’ve covered this in more detail here. 

The autumn programme includes the world premiere of Enigma, a new stage adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel by Mike Poulton. Directed by Hart and co-commissioned by Chichester Festival Theatre, the thriller is set at Bletchley Park and follows codebreaker Tom Jericho as he investigates the disappearance of Claire Romilly.

The anniversary year concludes with a new adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Beauty and the Beast, adapted by Tatty Hennessy and directed by Indiana Lown-Collins. The production will feature a folk-inspired score and is suitable for audiences aged four and over. Hennessy previously adapted Morpurgo’s The Sleeping Sword for the Watermill in 2022, while Lown-Collins co-directed the theatre’s 2026 revival of Pinocchio.

Further casting, creative team details and dates for the productions will be announced separately.

A new Community Collective project will bring together four community partner groups with limited access to cultural experiences. Participants will work with professional writers and theatre-makers to develop new work based on their lived experiences and stories.

To mark the anniversary, the Watermill will launch Creative Futures, a public fundraising campaign aiming to raise £60,000 during 2027. The money will support the theatre’s creative programme, accessibility and inclusivity work, and the preservation of its historic site.

The Watermill Theatre was conceived by David Gollins in 1965, with its first professional production following in 1967. The converted 1830s corn mill is a 200-seat venue whose history includes the Shakespeare company Propeller, an actor-musician production of Sweeney Todd that transferred to the West End and Broadway, and The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale, which went on to have many international productions.